Your Summer Playlist

No one knows music like a festival booker. Here, four of the best pick their favorite rising stars—and the song from each they’ll be humming all summer.

Mike Petryshyn

Riot Fest

  • Radkey, “Cat & Mouse”
  • The Bots, “5:17”
  • PUP, “Lionheart”
  • The Orwells, “Who Needs You”
  • ShowYouSuck, “Make-Out King”

Chris Kaskie

Pitchfork

  • Cloud Nothings, “Pattern Walks”
  • Deafheaven, “Dream House”
  • Majical Cloudz, “Bugs Don’t Buzz”
  • Mas Ysa, “Why”
  • The Range, “Metal Swing”

Michael Berg

North Coast

  • Chet Faker, “Talk Is Cheap”
  • J.Phlip, “Say My Name”
  • Lettuce, “Slippin’ into Darkness”
  • ProbCause, “Meditate (Two Fresh)”
  • Washed Out, “It All Feels Right”

Huston Powell

Lollapalooza

  • Courtney Barnett, “Avant Gardener”
  • Flume, “Drop the Game”
  • Jhené Aiko, “Bed Peace”
  • Lucius, “Tempest”
  • Vic Mensa, “Down on My Luck”

  Listen on Spotify

Illustration: Ben Wiseman

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Best of the Fests

Who to catch at the two biggest three-day extravaganzas

Pitchfork

July 18 to 20, Union Park,
pitchforkmusicfestival.com

Lollapalooza

August 1 to 3, Grant Park,
lollapalooza.com
Friday
Headlining

Beck
The alt-rock chameleon returns to his compelling sad-sack roots with his new album, Morning Phase.
Headlining

Lorde
Only 17, this “Royals” singer-songwriter is Fiona Apple for the BuzzFeed generation.
Heating Up

Hundred Waters
These Skrillex-endorsed dreamy folkies sound like Dirty Projectors by way of Björk.
Heating Up

Chvrches
The Scottish synth-pop trio gets crowds pumping with the 2013 buoyant techno hit “The Mother We Share.”
Saturday
Headlining

St. Vincent
Bow down to the art-rock goddess of our era.
Headlining

Outkast
Finally! The eccentric rap duo returns after a six-year hiatus.
Heating Up

Pusha T
The former Clipse MC raps about one thing—selling coke—but no one does it better.
Heating Up

Desert Noises
This psychedelic folk group is blasphemously good.
Sunday
Headlining

Slowdive
The shoegazers’ 20-year absence made fans grow even fonder. The reunion of the summer.
Headlining

The Avett Brothers
Modern bluegrass extraordinaires—a step up from last year’s Mumford & Sons.
Heating Up

Dum Dum Girls
An indie-pop dream
Heating Up

London Grammar
The emotive trio is like Portishead if Florence Welch were at the helm.

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Twin Peaks
Photo: Pooneh Ghana/IPC Media/NME
You should know

Garage-rock Band Twin Peaks

Their music: Catchy and punk tinged—think the Replacements meet the Strokes.

Their background: Four childhood friends from Chicago, all now 20, formed the band back in high school. One early gig: playing at open-mike nights with fellow classmate Chance the Rapper.

Their influences: Brits from the ’60s and ’70s, from the Rolling Stones to David Bowie to the Buzzcocks

Their new album: Wild Onion, due to be released on August 5, follows the quartet’s critically praised debut Sunken, which was recorded and self-released two years ago.

Their finances: “We’re not making any money yet,” says frontman Cadien Lake James. “So our parents have been supporting us, which speaks a lot for them.”

Twin Peaks play at Pitchfork Music Festival on July 19.

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Perry Farrell
Photo: Dan Steinberg/AP

Perry’s Favorites

Missed your chance to buy a three-day Lolla pass? Chicago asked fest founder and Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell to compile his list of the 15 best songs attendees will hear.

Disclosure & Friend Within “The Mechanism”
Arctic Monkeys “Do I Wanna Know?”
Calvin Harris “Summer”
Phantogram “Fall in Love”
Martin Garrix “Animals”
Joachim Garraud (featuring Perry and Etty Farrell) “Everybody”
Warpaint “Biggy”
The Glitch Mob “Our Demons”
London Grammar “Wasting My Young Years”
Childish Gambino “Shadows”
Cage the Elephant “Come a Little Closer”
Outkast “Bombs over Baghdad”
Chance the Rapper “Family”
Gesaffelstein “Hate or Glory”
Skrillex (featuring Ellie Goulding) “Because”

  Listen on Spotify

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